New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is a gamer and despite a magical MetLife Stadium sendoff on Sunday, he’s itching for another start and hoping he gets it in Week 16 against the Washington Redskins.
“Yeah, of course. Of course I’d like to,” Manning said when asked if he’d like to start against Washington. “I know Daniel’s getting close to getting ready and getting better. We’ll see what his status is. I get it either way. I know they want to get him back and get him more experience and more reps and everything. Whatever I’m asked to do, I’ll do it.”
Given the way Manning was able to say goodbye, not to mention evening his all-time regular season record at 117-117, it would seem almost unfair to strip that away. But should Jones be unable to go in Week 16, head coach Pat Shurmur has given no thought to playing Alex Tanney over Manning.
“Listen, if Daniel can’t go and Eli is our starter, we are going to go in with the idea that we’re going to put a winning performance on the field against Washington,” Shurmur said when asked about Tanney playing. “So yeah, I don’t know — I think that’s overthinking it a little bit.”
And just how close is Jones to returning?
“We’ll just have to see,” Shurmur said on Monday. “Even though this is what they call a victory Monday, there’s a lot of players in the building today getting weight training, treatment and studying tape. We’ll just push him along like we did last week. We started the week with the idea that he might be ready to play, and we’ll do the same this week.”
The Giants were wary of Manning’s .500 record earlier this season, so don’t for a second think they won’t consider that this week. And given the sendoff he received, it would be a legitimate shock if we saw Manning under center on Sunday in Washington and not Jones.
